The knot in his stomach weighed heavily on him as trees passed by in a blur out his window. He had to stare out it to distract him from inspecting every passenger in there with them. The low hum of the wheels against the rail car echoed in the night as the glass on the tray in front of him vibrated ever so slightly.

Pushing out his will, he tried to feel his dragon sitting patiently in the back. He knew they hated it. When he was helping them get Zuma into the car, they were stomping and blowing huffs of cool air at the workers. He couldn’t blame them. The last time they were in a rail car, it got overturned and the attackers nearly stole Zuma from him.

The House of the Serpents. They had done so much damage so quickly. They had themselves wrapped around not only the Water Nation Ambassador, but also one of four lords that controlled the entire country. There was still so much about them that Kaden didn’t know.

Something had stood out to him that Lord Loratyk had said about Ambassador Laramee. He stated that the attack on the citadel was something entirely related to Laramee and had nothing to do with his own assault on the water nation’s royalty. It made Kaden wonder how many sects of the serpents there were and if they had truly stopped them.

His water mage companions wanted to believe so. They were quick to assume safety after the lord was captured. Kaden and his three dragon rider companions knew better. The water matriarchs had shown them a world that was ending. They hadn’t talked too much about it, every one of them unsettled by the vision. The one thing they had agreed upon was that they all believed the serpents weren’t eliminated.

The carriage jerked and Kaden instinctively threw his hand out to catch his glass. He missed it, as it barely touched his fingers. A delicate hand had snapped out at the same time from the opposite seat and caught his glass before it hit the ground. Handing it back to him, Evonne gave him a polite smile.

“You seem on edge, Kaden.” She said in her delicate tone.

Sayori’s head popped over the chair behind Evonne’s blond head. Her dark hair a drastic difference from the girl below her. “It’s cause the last time we were in one of these, it flipped over and we had to fight a bunch of serpent agents. They had a lot more magic negating weapons, though.”

Reese appeared seemingly out of nowhere and pushed Evonne over as he slid into her booth. “More magic negating? Like the ones at the citadel?”

“Kinda. I don’t know. They were different. More prepared maybe?”

Kaden sighed. They had run into the serpent agents so many times, he couldn’t keep it straight what happened in which battle. “Yeah, they stabbed that one wind guy, and his magic went wild. Right?”

“Yeah, we haven’t seen that again. At least, not in the battles we’ve had with the serpent agents. The ones at the citadel were focused on climbing walls and taking dragons out of the air.”

Reese groaned. “The ones in the forest were just opportunistic. They weren’t really shutting our magic down. Just hard to hit in those damn trees.”

Evonne looked to Kaden and said, “the ones at the water castle, they weren’t shutting magic down either. There were some on those corrupted dragons and on gliders, but even the ones inside weren’t stopping magic or making it turn wild.”

“So the ones who attacked us originally,” Kaden was speaking directly to Sayori, “might not have been connected to the others. We know the lord said the citadel incident had been separate from his own. Maybe the rail attack was separate from the citadel attack?”

She put her elbows atop the cushion and laid her head on her arm as she pursed her lips. “We really should watch out for those ones. They were way more organized and prepared. If they can cut our magic off or make it run wild, we are screwed.”

“Obviously,” Reese said as he rolled his eyes. “Was there anything different about them?”

“They were in weird robes,” Kaden recalled.

Sayori laughed and said, “yeah, not the best fashion sense. They also used some weapons I’ve only heard about from—”

Evonne cut her off and said, “the gladiatorial games.”

Reese sunk into the seat. “The same games we’re going to go see. Well, isn’t that great? What’s so special about those weapons?”

Sayori lifted her head back up. “Well, from what I understand, mind you, I’ve never seen any of the games, they are battles to take down your opponent and subdue them. So if you’re fighting a magic user, you kind of need to stop them from casting.”

“Wait. They let non magical people fight the mages?” Kaden asked, with a bewildered look on his face. “Do they actually succeed?”

“Oh yeah,” Sayori said with a laugh. “The best can mess up a mage easily if the mage doesn’t know what to expect.”

Reese scoffed. “I doubt that. Maybe shitty mages lose against them. A competent mage could easily take out a non magic user.”

She slid back down the seat and from behind it she said in a mocking tone, “I guess we’ll see firsthand about that, won’t we?”

"I guess we well," mumbled Reese.

Kaden went back to watching the trees pass by. The moon was illuminating the countryside in a low light that allowed him to see the shapes of the trees as they bounced across the countryside. The train ride was a long one. They had departed from the water nation early in the morning and were still traveling across the wilderness and rural farms. They had one stop, but they didn’t have to transfer trains, just had to wait for the lanes to be switched for them to continue on.

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Sleep tugged at Kaden and he felt himself be lulled into a slumber as they rocked and swayed on the track. Images and scenes of that first attack played over in his dreams, keeping him from having any rest. He awoke with a start as the train car came to a stop and Evonne’s hand was on his shoulder.

“Kaden, wake up. We’ve arrived.”

He widened his eyes as he covered a sudden yawn. The sun was cresting over the horizon, painting the sky with soft pinks and oranges. They had been on the train for a full day before they had arrived. He knew the fire nation was quite a distance from his home, but he hadn’t known how far that was.

After their entrances into both the White City and the Water Nation were so chaotic, they were barred from flying on dragon back into the fire nation. While he missed riding on Zuma, he was thankful that he didn’t have to be constantly vigilant.

He could feel Zuma’s presence in the back of his mind. They were anxious and restless as the train had come to a stop. He couldn’t tell if it was because of them stopping or if they had known they had arrived. Ever since the water matriarchs had blessed him again, he had a much deeper connection with Zuma. He could actually tell their emotions now and not just guess at them. He was more aware of where they were even. There was far less guesswork on determining how they were feeling. He knew exactly how they were feeling. Most often, that was irritation.

Reese was strapping on several knives into hidden pockets as Kaden got up. Raising his eyebrow toward his partner, Reese gave a half smirk and shrugged before going back to arming himself. Kaden couldn’t entirely blame him. Their trip so far hadn’t been the safest, and they were only just starting. Add in an end of the world vision from the matriarchs and anyone would feel like they needed to protect themselves.

“You look like an idiot,” Sayori said as she pushed him off balance when passing by. He stumbled and grumbled at her.

Kaden couldn’t help but snicker at them as he squeezed past. Following Sayori out of the train car, he had to skip to catch up with her. His eyes opened wide as they entered the train station. There were draping bright colored fabrics hanging from the rafters. The morning sun was shimmering down through colored glass. It truly looked like the station was on fire with magical light.

He felt Evonne nudge him as his mouth was agape. “Welcome to the Firelands.”

Shaking himself out of his stupor, he chased the two ladies as they made their way toward the dragon cars. They had agreed that they wouldn’t let the creatures get too far out of their sights from then on. Too much had happened to them all personally, that they weren’t about to let their dragons become victims again.

A wave of irritation pulsed down his senses. Zuma was not happy. He heard a roar and he let out a sigh before jogging down the train. The others were following his lead as they reached the cars.

A man in a bright red robe and disheveled hair came marching up to them. “Your dragons cannot fly here! There is not enough space. The skies are on lock down. No fliers, red dragon or other! Tell them to calm down!”

“Why are the skies locked down?” Asked Sayori as she crossed her arms.

“I don’t know!” The man threw his hands up. “I’m just doing my job, lady. Calm your dragons!”

She rolled her eyes and motioned for Kaden to move forward. He pushed out his will toward the grumpy dragon and was hit with a wave of discontentment. They were sore from the long ride and upset that people kept pushing their wings down as they tried to expand them.

He stood there with his hands on his hips. “Zuma.”

A huff of mist swallowed him whole. It rolled over him and pushed toward his companions.

“You need to behave. This is not our nation. We need to abide by the rules. This is a no-fly zone. You four will walk with us.”

“Actually,” the robed man interrupted them, “they won’t be walking. No dragons are allowed down the main streets.”

The four of them gave them blank stares, and he shifted his weight as his eyes danced between them, trying to get a read of some reaction other than annoyance.

“They will have to walk down the dragon tunnels,” he said quietly.

Reese leaned forward and said, “I’m sorry, the what?”

“Dragon tunnels.”

They looked to Evonne to explain, and all she did was shrug and say, “this wasn’t a thing when I left.”

“You want us to take our dragons into tunnels? Why?”

The man straightened his back. “Dragons are dangerous creatures that should only be relegated to areas designated for them. We can’t have them in the middle of town. It would cause undue destruction.”

“Is that a regular issue here?” Asked Sayori.

“Well…” He shifted his weight again as he was wringing his hands. “No, but they could do something of that nature.”

Zuma let out another huff of mist and it swallowed the man whole. Kaden smirked as he tried to swat away the fog. Dropping his shoulders, he sighed and looked back at Zuma. “I guess we’re walking in some tunnels.”

“Actually…”

Kaden couldn’t help but audibly groan and say, “now what?”

“We don’t allow any humans down in the tunnels. They could get hurt by the dragons.”

“You’re kidding,” said Reese.

Sayori waved a hand toward the man and the workers that were letting the other dragons out. “We’ll be fine. The earth is my domain.”

He tried to follow her as she helped unhook her dragon Taldor. “Ma’am. You aren’t allowed there.”

“Yes, I am.”

“No, Ma’am. You can’t go in there. It’s not safe.”

“We’ll be fine.”

“Ma’am…”

Reese grabbed the man by the shoulders and physically pulled him away from Sayori just as she whirled around with anger on her face. He leaned next to him and said, “if your boss gets mad, tell them the Champions of the Night of Fallen Wings were the ones who went in. They can send their complaints to the white city.”

He stuttered, unable to retort.

Sayori was leading Taldor out of the open train car and down a ramp on the other side, ignoring all the frantic workers. Evonne winked at the man and ran to her own dragon, Jerri. Kaden shrugged and went to work on helping get Zuma out.

He saw the man visibly deflate next to Reese. Patting him on the back, Reese said, “Now which way is the temple? We are to go there first.”

The man sighed and said, “the main tunnel goes north, straight to the temple. Any side tunnels are just exits. Follow the large tunnel and you’ll eventually arrive.”

Kaden waved at the man as he pulled Zuma away, following Taldor and Sayori. He heard Reese laughing as he walked toward his own wind dragon, Beelin. He didn’t like the rules either. When he first became a water mage, he would have likely followed their instructions, but after everything they had already seen, he wasn’t going to follow rules that could put them or their dragons in danger.

He followed the dirt path down to and large open entrance going deep into the earth. Sayori was waiting for the rest of them. A chill ran down his spine the closer he got. He found her staring at the darkness ahead.

“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” he said to her as he approached.

She let out a deep sigh and said, “You shouldn’t. There are more than dragons in there.”

“Did you hear them say something about that?”

She shook her head and stomped her feet onto the stone beneath her. “I can feel them.”

“Can you normally feel people?”

She took a deep breath and held it before saying, “it’s not people we need to worry about.”